This week’s comment came from BeForJess of Happy Go Lucky! Thanks for commenting again!
It’s nice to see articles like this that illuminate facets of the idol blogging world!
I’ll be totally honest – it actually confuses me that so many people feel the need to preface their blogs with statements about how it’s their opinion… Simply because I feel like that’s the very essence of a blog. To get your opinions out there.
What a boring blogging world we’d have if nobody spoke opinion and talked about the things they are biased towards or against. Some of the best idol blogs out there are ones where I don’t even agree with the writer’s opinion nine times out of ten… But I like to see someone else’s perspective.
Generally speaking, the furthest I’ll ever go is to preface something particularly polarizing with a phrase like, “in my opinion”, or something similar. For all the high praise and low blows I’ve dished out on my blog, I haven’t really dealt with anything in the way of backlash. I’m not too worried about my biases showing and affecting others either – in fact, if my love for someone can influence someone else to love that idol too, all the better. Even with a negative bias, it can be comforting to know that even though the whole world loves idol X, you can’t stand her and you’re not alone.
As far as Happy Disco goes – I think you do just fine! Don’t move towards censoring your opinions to cover your bias, because you have your bias for a reason, and if you share your love, you might convince someone else to give them a try too. 
I agree with what you said. I do think it would be boring if bloggers were expected to be completely unbiased and not share what they like and dislike. I mean, that’s the point of a lot of blogs. I also agree that I like reading opinions different to mine. I enjoy a wide variety of discourse, because that helps inform my own ideas and opinions.
As for prefacing blog posts, I generally tend to use language like “in my opinion” and “I think” just to erase all doubts that Happy Disco is just Serenyty’s realm of idol thoughts. I do wish it was less necessary to say something, but people can get a bit defensive of their favorites. I know that Chiima of Okay! Musume Time, for example, got some flack for writing critical things of Berryz Koubou. I’m not saying you have to agree with everything I write, but I would like to avoid internet rage (until I start reviewing video games or something like that). But I do try to share my feelings in general, even if I err on the side of caution.
The one statement that really resonated with me for this is “you have your bias for a reason.” Because that’s true; bloggers so often go to defend themselves with saying “I have a bias for this” when really, that’s just a personal taste that informs your opinions. I have a bias towards Team Syachihoko, but that’s because of the group, not because I have a bias there.
Thank you for your excellent comment, I appreciate it!
Idolminded’s Ray wrote a fairly long response to my last post on the Rec Reading post, so I decided to post that here too! (I know I get a lot of my views from Idolminded, but if you don’t visit Idolminded you absolutely should. I write there too!).
For a while, I’ve noticed a lot of younger bloggers seem more self-aware and pro-active about making sure their opinions are taken as opinions, a fear of backlash if that was not clear enough. I come from a pre-Internet tradition of pop-culture journalism, and so I always assumed my readership knew where I stood and that my writing would reinforce that stance. I wonder if this current self-awareness about biases and opinions is something that comes with growing up in the Internet age, where flame wars and willful misunderstanding of authorial intent is so common.
All that said, I have a general disdain for the notion of an absolute objective journalism. The idea that all opinions are equally valid is intellectually dishonest: some people are better informed, have thought out issues more, and are more articulate than others. Those opinions should be valued more than unreflective, off-the-cuff controversy-mongering. (And historically speaking, the notion of journalistic objectivity was not an attempt to provide better news but to sell papers to a wider audience – playing both sides of the fence, as it were.)
There is a great tradition of partisan and advocacy journalism, and I believe one can write in such a manner that one’s biases are understood to be in the service of honest intellectual inquiry. There’s a difference between trying to make people believe your opinions are the only right ones, and using your opinions as a starting point for a more extensive discussion. If you write as if you’re trying to win a shouting argument, you’re probably doing it wrong.
What matters is not objectivity: what matters is awareness of one’s biases, an innate respect for other people’s opinions (there’s a huge difference between respecting opinions and saying they’re equal), and a natural curiosity willing to test one’s values (and those of others) in the quest for greater enlightenment. Which may all sound kind of lofty, but in today’s media maybe we need such reminders once in a while
I honestly don’t have much to add, because I really like what was written and I want everyone to read it. However, I do have to say that as a somewhat younger blogger, I do think growing up online has a part of why I have to think about this. I was born in 1991 and I can’t even remember not having internet (since my dad’s pretty tech savvy). I spent a lot of my teen years involved on forums and in fan communities, and I’ve seen lots of anger and rage over fairly benign/pointless opinions. This has caused me to be slightly defensive in my writing style, I think mostly because of the nature of the internet and its instantaneous feedback. I haven’t had too much issues with Happy Disco and being an idol fan as a whole, but experiences of mine have informed how I write, for better or worse.
I do think there is a place for objective journalism, but I don’t think it’s somehow more valid than biased journalism, nor is it easy to achieve. While journalism/news wasn’t a major facet of my undergraduate education in media studies, there was one section in my Television-centered class on televised news. We analyzed news clips from American news outlets like CNN, and even if they’re trying to be unbiased in wording and opinion, there’s still a matter of what you present, how you present it. For example, American news media generally ignores stories that don’t have as much of a visual content, or stories that are ongoing (i.e. not “breaking news”). Because really, most news networks need viewers more than anything. When I studied abroad in the UK, it was refreshing to watch BBC news because the lack of commercials means that they aren’t focusing on ad financing. Since the BBC has always had education as a core focus, this improves their news quality.
That said, I absolutely agree that not every issue has equally correct people on both sides. Just because an issue has two sides doesn’t mean that both are right and that both are equally valid. Perhaps objectivity isn’t the correct word, and honesty is? I think that there’s a lot of good in sharing your opinions, but at the end of the day I still want journalism to attempt honest reporting.
The last paragraph is my favorite, though, and I absolutely agree.